


Apprenticed to Eternity

by Dark_Blue0



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-06-29 07:04:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19825006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Blue0/pseuds/Dark_Blue0
Summary: The apprentice of an immortal necromancer must risk his life to rescue his teacher, learning the ways of magic along the way.





	1. Dreams and Toast

There was a spark, a blue-white spark, brief but intense it swallowed the darkness and suddenly there was light and shape and so many other things that one could not name them all in a thousand words all at once beautiful, horrifying, and beyond the realms of imagining. Enocan woke from this dream with a faint twitching in his nose when he coaxed his eyes open, amber met the world and he discovered the twitching was caused by the short drapes of his bed swaying as his long tail swatted at them. Sitting up he stretched his spine out while cracking his neck, swinging his leg over the bed's edge, a shiver ran up his spine when his paw made contact with the chilly, polished stone, swinging his other leg over to stand. He walked briskly across the room to his armoire wardrobe. 

Opening the chocolate stained wooden door Enocan picked a crisp, cream-colored button down, sleeveless shirt, pairing it with faded blue jeans, and lastly the jacket embroidered with a black A on its grey breast, the marking of his mistress. Stepping in front of the full length mirror adjacent to the dresser, he stripped of the lose red night pants and the white top, exposing all of his grey-brown fur, and his white chest. He didn’t sleep with underwear nor did most of the feline-like Keshmori, they found it stifling, especially in the deserts of Kemvarian, though his mistress lived in Agnorian, as had his family in their many generations of servitude, he’d found the bogs no less muggy after a trip to his homeland for his seventeenth birthday that the Lady Alexandria had given him leave for last year. Jacket pinned in his sharp front teeth as he finished the last of the buttons of his shirt, he made his way toward the kitchens nodding to the servants as they passed, maneuvering around the broad the captain of the guard as she headed to her morning post, breakfast with her husband , the sue chef of the main palace, finished, Arnna was her name, she was a towering woman of 8 feet and 11 inches, massive compared to his own 5’8” stature, with coffee brown skin and her long, thick tresses as white as the ice of her homeland, common for the Desrina Anora who shared a distant cousin with polar bears. Her husband Damvoren was of slightly shorter stature, though no less bulky, and had lighter skin and darker hair the telltale features of the Desrina Skatront, cousin to the grizzly bears, of forest coated Zujen, his hair was also shorter and kept in a tight bun, though this was more to decrease any stray strands landing in food and less a cultural difference.

“Morning, Apprentice” was Damvoren’s greeting to Enocan as he enters the large kitchens, servants moving about preparing meals for themselves at the stoves, one could tell the head chef Mancrogo had lit them personally if they noticed the green hue of the flames, and readying the breakfasts for the horses, dogs, and other creatures of the manner. The two were friends of a sort, at least Enocan found talking with the large man easier than with the other chefs, and Damvoren taught him how Lady Alexandria prefered her tea. That exact task had brought him to the kitchen, well that and the fresh meat pie that the hulking man had prepared for him. “Hello Damvoren, any suggestions for her morning toast?” he said taking a large bite from the pie while filling a pot with some water and set it over the small oven fire left specifically for their mistress, “Her chambermaids mentioned she was curious about the peach blossoms last night, I’d say that’s a safe bet” the man said in his gravelly voice. Nodding his understanding Enocan looks over the fresh loaves of bread picking a plain white one, cutting two thick slices and handing them to a fellow Keshmori, a female with fur the color of oranges, who from her palm and along her fingers produced waves of superheated air, starting to toast the slices slowly and carefully. It was not a requirement, but almost all of the members of the kitchen staff used some variant of heat magic, be it actual fire, or some other form, Damvoren for example could create and control boiling water and steam, his soups and broths were second to none in Enocan’s opinion.

While the toast was being prepared he set about picking one of the last of this year's peach jams, when the toasted bread was handed back to him he spread the jam thickly over them, the flavor had to be strong for his mistress or she would not be able to taste it. He looked around the kitchen as he waited for the water to steam, all around him was evidence of Alexandria’s influence, the cooks dutifully prepared all of the days food and already preparing to make tomorrow's meals, the maids and butlers rushing to be done with their food so that they could set to their various tasks before the sun could fully raise and with it their mistress, he knew the guards were stationed, even now all throughout the palace, moving only from one post to their next even though some of them had been on duty since late afternoon yesterday. The palace hadn’t seen risk of attack for nearly three centuries but none of the soldiers here would dare think of rest before their replacements arrived, concern for the aged Lady too great to concede to comfort. The main palace was the size of some villages he had seen, fittingly there were servants numbered in the tens of thousands, from every species across the globe, their families had been in her service for long millennium, some had even been responsible for laying the foundations of the great house that had grown as their numbers increased. They had become her servants out of debt, fear, and gratitude but now they remained because life away from what was their home seemed foreign, they each visited their species homelands and were welcomed, they could stay there and make a new life for themselves she would not punish them with retribution. Enocan had never heard of those who chose not to returned to serve, she welcomed them each upon their return, in the various stages of prosperous youth and great withered age, then young again as was her way. When Enocan has returned, nearly a full year ago, his mistress had the look of a three hundred thirty seven year old of her species.

The tea he had picked for her was Assama, brewed for near an hour, leaves replaced every fifteen minutes to deepen the flavor, and it was made sickly sweet to accommodate the weakness of the mistresses senses that would otherwise not allow her to taste the beverage. The toast was now cool and soggy but that would not matter to her dull senses. This he knew, as all others knew, still he took care to arrange it neatly for her and to keep the tea at a simmer as he made his way to her. The sun and risen and their mistress was awake now. It was a long corridor to her chambers, one with no other rooms other than her own at its end, besides the two guards at the arching entrance of the hallway and two more at the halfway point no one passed him. Alexandria was not a seclusive woman by choice but for the last decade she preferred few to be near her out of concern for them. She allowed only her attendants and he, her apprentice, near her for their duties, he had passed both sets of guards with a nod and was now approaching the large wooden doors preparing himself with a deep breath.

The stench was horrid he thought, it always was, and it was made no better by the lacking freshness of his mistress’s chambers, but there was little he could do, the woman's senses were dampened, and would be for the next year he knew, so she would not bother to have the other servants cleans the rooms. Only the sweet morning tea and jammed toast had an aroma, other than the general scents of the hundreds of bitterly burning incense masking the underlying and nearly overwhelming smell of rot, four of the eight attendants specialized in air magic and tried to keep the room as fresh as they could. The fading grey eyes watched him through the laced, navy blue curtains, hung from the ceiling all around the room, that flowed in the morning breeze drifting in through the open floor to ceiling windows and the balcony door. He had yet to decide if her constant gaze was comforting or frightening; she was beautiful despite her unknown species, even now in her aged state, the lengthy white curls streaked with faded blonde, full lips kept in a constant, expectant, smile, silk white skin free of blemish, her aristocratic facial features were softened slightly by her wrinkles, laugh lines that reached the corners of her steel grey eyes.

He had been her apprentice nearly all his life but only after he returned to stay at her side did she begin teaching him, others would have and already learned magic of some kind, but her orders for him had been that if he truly wished to be her student he would learn only from her and when he decided that her palace would be his home past turning seventeen. She was sat up in her bed, dressed in a black, silk, night dress. He bowed to her, tray balanced on one hand, he stood and placed it across her lap. She thanked him with a nod of her head, popping could be heard from her long neck. “Good morning, Enocan. What have we today?” the creatures voice was a scratching whisper. Her condition was that of someone if they lived to be four-hundred and fourteen years old of her species and in the coming three months she would age forty-five more years before the spell would be broken and would need to be cast again. Alexandria would not be able to walk, talk, and perform other such tasks for a little over two of those months and they dared not require her to use her magic for her aging would be accelerated and prolonged, so her servants were especially dutiful in the last year of the spell’s three-decade duration so that their mistress could be returned to vitality quickly. “Peach jelly toast, and black tea my lady”.

She brought one of the slices of toast up and inhaled deeply, he could see it bending slightly in the middle where it had become soggy. He had never seen her just taken a bite or a sip, first, she would ask what he’d made even though she could clearly see it, then she would smell it as if somehow the scents actually reached her through all the others which engulfed them, he doubted it did, then she would look through the long curtains. He wasn’t sure what she was actually looking at, clearly, it couldn’t just be the view of the sky or the palace, she must have seen all of those millions of times already. Even before she’d had the palace built, she had been absolutely ancient, how many times could one see the sunrise and still find it interesting?  
“You know, the first time I saw the sunrise that I really remember was 6,868 years ago,” her weak voice had been faint enough the only reason he knew it wasn’t imagined is he’d watched her painted lips work the words on accident while he had tried to witness her take a bite, “I might have missed a few in all of those days, but I have felt the energy of Quinnareth’s rising for nearly all of them”. Her tone was at once somberly distant, and yet it was fond as well as if there had been something about the days she'd enjoyed, part of him doubted that could be true; he'd seen many faded scars that stood testament to struggles she must have faced, but still, she smiled.


	2. Dawn Broken Spell

The loathing was plain on her face, it was the stench emanating from her core that caused it. From the strands of her life thread, the smell of putrid rotting wafted into the rest of her chambers. There had been many positives to the spell preserving her life force, fueled by the thousands of deaths that took place in the thirty years between each casting, yes the necromancer had enjoyed her eons in this world even though she had had to watch it change so irrevocably. But this, this one thing drove her up the wall, using her powers, so natural and easy throughout most of her life, ached deeply in each of these three months that her ritual broke down to its basic components. Much as it pained her, Alexandria normally would just bite the bullet, as the saying had been, and wouldn’t use any of her powers, but this time was different from many of the other cycles, she had again found someone like herself. 

When magic had started to spread across the world nearly seven thousand years ago there was a trend, everyone who could use it, and back then not everyone could, had some form of natural use of a pre-known style of it, she, however, had not, and with that freedom of choice she did the profane. Alexandria pioneered the magic of death, channeling a force that had rule over many of the laws of nature themselves. She guards the knowledge of this magic closely, having taught it to only three in her long life and never had she shared the secret of her immortality, nor the knowledge of their world that she’d discovered with all of her great time. But now at last those hidden truths she was willing to divulge, to the boy. He thinks them dreams but she knows better. All of this brings us back to that wretched smell she just can’t get rid of, the cost of a body using magic beyond its means.

The approaching warmth of the sun as it climbed higher into the sky danced on pale skin told her that soon her enchantment would break. Before her, an orb cast in lilac light displayed the visions she was bestowing on her pupil, she had frozen him in the instant, the moment that encompassed all that followed it. “The Big Bang” her people had called it, she could almost laugh even now, it was hardly a pop, like the ringing of a babes mobile. A sigh issued from her lips “Can’t question the results I suppose” she croaked. The orb cracked, dissolving to mist as it fell she didn't seem to notice, her head was coked as she looked at the door she knew would soon open as her chamber maides would begin to work around her, it would be toast for breakfast she knew that Damvoren wouldn’t let Enocan make her anything else.h  
“Her teeth aren't strong enough for that” she sighed at the memory of the argument the two had had, she wasn’t there when the boys had the fight but the memory was carried to her in the mind of her personal Butler, that she technically stole it from his mind was no worry on her delicate shoulders.

She sensed them at the archway, her main servants, their life forces sung to her own withering one. At the head of the small group was Esterna, her head maid, from the amphibious Kantorion species, related to what had once been sharks. Esterna had served her for just over 14 cycles, but the shark like woman now the longest lived member of her species, partly due to Alexandria herself, and the necromancer could tell her servant was weary, so come the end of this year she would let her friend pass, though it saddened her. She paid little attention to the servants moving about her chambers, many of them were young and she would not need to know their names for a time. No the great lady had her attention focused far off, beyond the borders of her great palace, something would soon arrive here she found. But for the moment her tea was here, she wondered what the toast would be.


	3. Disruption at Daylight

It had seemed to Enocan that hours had passed since he brought Lady Alexandria her breakfast, in reality it had only been thirty minutes. She had finished her toast a few moments ago, she had barely touched the tea at her side, oddly it was still steaming even though it had been poured some time ago. She had been unusually quiet this morning, normally they would discuss some small subjects that she had brought up, he didn’t have the confidence in himself to bring anything up first. With his friends at the heart of the palace and even in the “Capital City” as they called it, really it was just where the bulk of extended family from the main palace servants and guards lived, a few miles away he was very outgoing. But he couldn’t be so in her company, to many here she seemed a mix of tribal elder to be respected and emissary of one of the Greater Gods with power and authority greater than any of them could hope to attain. Another few moments of silence passed as she finally brought her cup to her pale lips.

He just didn’t know how to hold himself in this silence. His ears twitched with the breathing of the other servants in the room, his tail flicked tentatively from side to side through the gap between the back of the chair and it’s seat. “My lady does something trouble you?” in a characteristically calm voice she gave a simple command. “Quickly, kneel down as close as you can to my bed.” He couldn’t understand why she would make such a request, but while his mind was confused by it his body seemed compelled to follow, moving almost on its own at the same moment her words were being spoken though he didn’t yet know how or why.

Almost immediately after he knelt the entirety of the wall to his back imploded, chunks of stone from the support pillars, strips of the satin lace curtains, as well as the tall bronze incense holders and many shards of glass from the windows. The seven servants on the other side of the room all managed to protect themselves with their magic; of them three were versed in air magic, one used some variety of plant magic, another had a power that resembled glass, and the last, the main attendant of Lady Alexandria, produced flames that burned everything that came near her. The three attendants who’d been on that side of the room were blasted off their feet and further into the room, dead upon landing. Meanwhile the two further in the chamber by the ladies study hid themselves behind the pillars of the room.

The bed itself was protected by some dark power that turned everything that came in contact with it to dust, the dust itself seemed to be blown away in a gust back towards the blown out wall. Alexandria only sipped her tea, the only indication she cared was that she’d turned her head to the wall, a glance toward her servants before she looked toward the intruders. Enocan could somewhat make out a number of silhouettes, hidden by the settling dust. “Who are you to think you may enter my chambers.” Enocan’s eyes widened, his pupils going from thin slits to blown out as he looked back at his lady, his shock from hearing her voice out of its croaking state to something stronger. He was even more startled to see she had become subtly younger, her eyes sharper and the lines of her face had thinned. “Evil old witch, stealing your servants life force even as they lay dying. Truly it is time for you to die.” The voice of a woman came from the other side of the thinning smoke screen, but that was’t important, their master had been directly threatened and all throughout the palace magic rose to defend her.


End file.
